Drawings of the Prophet Mohammed

2005-12-27

Claus Seidel

Claus Seidel has drawn a humble prophet in simple clothes. Isn't this what we normally imagine Mohammed to have looked like? Where's the crime?

Remember, there's a reward for killing all of the artists. What is it in this drawing that could justify a murder?

Don't believe the explanation that all drawings of the prophet are prohibited. The icon to the right was bought on the streets of Iran in 1999 be the Norwegian scholar Indvild Flaskerud. Read the story (in Danish) here: Vrede over islamisk kunst (Jyllands-Posten). There's a larger copy of the image here.

How come some people are allowed, while others are not?

Update: I'm informed that the icon to the right is a not a picture of Mohammed, but rather his cousin Ali - the founder of the Shiite branch of Islam.

Added update: JyllandsPosten have announced that the whole thing is a terrible mistake and that their own 12 drawings are in fact also drawings of Mohammed's cousin Ali. Muslims worldwide are laying down their weapons and start having meaningful lives.

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world ,whether you like it or not !..its a fact my friend . Obviosly you people lack of respect of religion beliefs . and when it comes to mocking and disrespecting others religion ,thats where you go wrong , if people dont care about there beliefs , We Do (All Muslims) !we are very proud it.As well as we respect all other religions.Im not trying to hate here.. -no ..i just want to make a point here , they shouldnt have drawn those pictures. another thing buddy ,get your facts right ...first of all that picture is still sold ..second that picture doesnt represent the prophet (peace be uppon him) if you read about it - its a close portrait of one the great followers of the prophet .finaly there isnt Any picture of the prophet thats ever been drawn ..2 this day .Thank you..peaCe !

i would explain as weak attempts to prove a point.... i second wut has been said!! no picture of our prophet has been drawn till this day...! and the archieve you have published has been drawn be people who are NOT muslims and have nothing to do with it...! its forbidden in our religion to connect our prophet with pictures... GET IT YET?

> i second wut has been said!! no picture of our prophet has been drawn till this day...!

It seems you are quibbling over words. If no picture of [y]our prophet has been drawn, why are Muslims busily issuing death threats against 12 Danish artists?

> its forbidden in our religion to connect our prophet with pictures...

According to some interpretations, yes. But these prohibitions are for Muslims only. As a Kuffar I'm allowed to eat pork, drink beer and draw Mohammed. Yes, I have done my homework.

> GET IT YET?

No I don't. Please answer this one: If its forbidden in [y]our religion to connect [y]our prophet with pictures, then why have the Danish Imams produced, distributed and displayed drawings that are far more blasphemous than anything ever published in any Danish newspaper?

lets not make this comlpicated, for what purpose did they draw it for ? ..tell me where is the joy in hurting millions of muslims and non-muslims. we all want peace and good relation with each .Terrorist attack around the globe happen .. and ISLAM goes to TRIAL ?! those so called muslims with there in human acts ..are not considered MUSLIMS my friend.i dont want to go to far ..what im trying to say ..answer me honestly .. if u were a jew or christian ,and sum1 drew blasphemous drawings of jesus or moses? how would you feel about that ? what will be your reaction ?

About the The Mohammed Image Archive? honestly i didnt know such pics existed . personally i havent seen'em been published or printed out in the OPEN like the danish drawing .those are old and historic no one knew about it ? that doesnt justify what they did !

Away from religion ...who gave then the right to hurt and disturb millions of people?do you agree on what they did?we all beleive in freedom of speech ,but when it comes to crossing the line , thats where it should start?what kind of society it will be if everyone would say or do what ever they want?there has to be certain boundaries and limits , in order the live in civilised society .i know we all aren't perfect , but we have to at least try are best .even US muslims make mistakes . recently i heard burning the danish embassy in seria .. I think its wrong it shouldnt have happened .well buddy i hope u understand what im sayin..peaCe !

> Jamal: lets not make this comlpicated, for what purpose did they draw it for ?

Ok, I'll make it uncomplicated: the blasphemous picture of Mohammed as a pedophile was produced by the Danish imams from Islamisk Trossamfund. it has never appeared in any Danish paper

Not only did the Imams produce three blasphemous pictures, but they have displayed their drawing of Mohammed as a pig on BBC and al-Jazeera - to make totally sure that 1,3 billion Muslims are insulted.

In contrast, the images in JyllandsPosten are much more innocent and was only meant to be seen by Danes. Do you get it now? Don't blame me, don't blame JyllandsPosten, but blame the lying imams who have made their own blasphemous drawings and shown them to the entire world.

If you want to know, why believing Imams would produce drawings of Mohammed as a pig or a picture of a praying Muslim being raped by a dog - then I suggest you ask the lying Imams themselves. Here's the address: www.wakf.com

> if u were a jew or >christian ,and sum1 drew >blasphemous drawings of jesus or >moses? >how would you feel about that ? >what will be your reaction ?

blasphemous drawings of jesus (and all religious figures) appear ALL THE TIME. how do christians feel about it? probably not so great, but that certainly doesn't justify calling for the death of the person who drew the picture.

not only that, but any sane person would realize that it is the artist's right and privilege to draw a representation of anything they want. just because another person doesn't agree with the artist's views doesn't mean that they are not allowed to hold them or to make them public.

personally, i am not a christian, nor a jew, nor a muslim. i do not subscribe to any religious belief. but i applaud those religions whose followers are endowed with a basic sense of humor and the ability to recognize another's free speech.

>>blasphemous drawings of jesus (and all religious figures) appear >>ALL THE TIME. how do christians feel about it? probably not so great.<<But were not like christians - any1 trys to mock or insult are religion, we will always be there to defend it cause we love our religion and our prophet . thats the deal .yes we believe in art, freedom of speech and press . but within boundaries and limits that doesnt insult are religion in any way .Talk about art ..there are many successful and skillful artist around the globe i've seen ,that do that .unfortunately -The word freedom has a different understanding from one culture to another..the jews dont like,want any1 to talk about the Holocaust (or comment about it) cause its racism. france ddnt let TV Manar to broadcast their ... where's the freedom of press and speech ?!billion of muslim are protesting and standing up for there religion around the globe . its hard to its are fault ?!

I am a Muslim, and whilst its not nice to be offended, I think the whole being up in arms thing and death threats are absolutley pathetic. I anticipate plenty of angry comments in response to this. The fact is these drawings are depicted by Kufr. Secondly, remember the hadith about the woman that constantly threw stones and insulted the prophet? Our prophet (PBUH) never flinched and remained patient. In fact his intention w to befrind her and his care of her when she was ill despite her previos behaviour led to embrace the true beauty of Islam as demonstrated by the prophet (pbuh). I suggest doing some reading regarding Islamic personality "Believers do not become angry when criticised." If you have faith, you will realise that any drawings of life form are forbidden in Islam, let every soul answer to the creator, not to you, they will be asked to create that life they drew on the day of judgement. Often, it is the case that anger is provoked by a deep rooted insecurity about one's faith so you will need to address this. Unfortunatly the very black and white idealogies followed by many muslims today is what dilutes the true message of Islam. Its okay to attend circle meetings where other religions are mocked though isnt it? You will always have non believers with their opinions, criticisms etc..it's the free will that Allah has bestowed upon us. If you truly believe your feathers may be slightly ruffled but these situations shouldnt provoke such anger. What is it that you feel threatned by? The portraits are for the artists to answer for and has no bearing on our prophet (pbuh) who resides in the heavens. Stop living by duniya values and reach a higher understanding. And that goes for all the critics of Islam as well. To earn respect you must deliver it.

I might be wrong about this but arn't there some paintings from the days of Mohammed that actually portraits the real Mohammed as he looked in real life.I belive I've seen them on The discovery channel.

yes, there are probably paintings from the time of the prophet (pbuh), but as far as i know, and this is only as far as i know, it is forbidden for a Muslim to attempt to draw life form (except plants, still life)e.g. human and animal portraits are forbidden. so if there are paintings of the prophet (pbuh) it would have been created by non muslims at the time.

> as i know, it is forbidden for a Muslim to attempt to draw life form (except plants, still life)e.g. human and animal portraits are forbidden. so if there are paintings of the prophet (pbuh) it would have been created by non muslims at the time.

There are several interpretations of Islam. The most severe, Wahhabism, doesn't allow to depict any kind of plants, animals or humans. On the other hand Shiite's don't have a problem with depicting Mohammed.

this page is currently down, but it will show you a picture of a mural in Iran, where Mohammed is painted - riding on a Buraq on his night voyage.

A problem with religions in general, as any Freudian worth his salt can tell you, is that they re-incarnate the primal father as an all-powerful being who must be obeyed, from both love and fear.. this somewhat forced obedience inevitably results in some measure of rebellion. The rebellion is sometimes very violent. At present, Muslims unfortunately seem to be chosen to express this violence.. this is a bad time for humanity. Hitler's world war was even worse; he, of course, was a self-proclaimed fanatical Christian.. both Bin Laden and Hitler were/are evil geniuses - but we don't all have to be evil doofuses and follow them into early graves.. some of us will, of course. It's all part of the human condition, etc.

the cartoons were to prove a point that islam is intoleront to other peoples views

The quran claims the prophets of the bible are of islam so why are muslims not doing anything any time Jesus is insulted or drawn

But i personally disagree with the danish cartoons because if they wanted to portray Mohamed as evil they should just tell people what he did: --He was responsible for the murder of thousdands --Raped victums of war --had sex with a 9 year old girl when he was 53 --committed adulerty with his adopted son's wife(*and ur god approved of it) --had around 12 wifes(which is more than is allowed in islam) --had many concubines --performed no miracle --said many times to kill Christians, Jews and all non- believers

He also proclaimed that Heaven is like a drunken orgy ---> countless virgins and rivers of "pure" wine

* Islam should be banned because it orders all people( including peaceful muslims) to be killed

if u want to know where i get these claims, read the quran and hadiths or u wanna contact me my email is matestepho@hotmail.com

I just wanted to say that the picture on the right is mentioned to be Mohammad, the prophet, since the writing on the top of the picture suggests it.

The problem with the Danish cartoons were not the fact of drawing the prophet, since this act has been done in many places throughout history ... You can find plenty of drawings on the walls of ancient mosques in Iran, India and other Muslim countries ...However the problem was that, some of the drawings : "with Neghab" and "bomb on the head"were really assaulting and rude to the being of A Prophet ....And the violation were well started when there was no explanation from the newspaper itself ....My point is that, unfortunately the whole story of violence were also justified by the lack of understanding shown from the Danish newspaper (where it didn't explain it's work immidiately) and even Fogh Rasmussen (when he declined the demanded meeting from the 10 embassadors on Oct 12...)

> "I just wanted to say that the picture on the right is mentioned to be Mohammad, the prophet, since the writing on the top of the picture suggests it. "

Could you translate the text for me, please?

> "The problem with the Danish cartoons were not the fact of drawing the prophet, since this act has been done in many places throughout history ... You can find plenty of drawings on the walls of ancient mosques in Iran, India and other Muslim countries ..."

Well, I guess "the problem" varies according to whom you're asking. Wahhabist al-Jazeera keeps harping on how all kinds of depictions are disallowed.

> "However the problem was that, some of the drawings : "with Neghab" and "bomb on the head"were really assaulting and rude to the being of A Prophet ...."

They were meant to be "insulting and rude" to those who have hijacked the religion and use it as an excuse for terrorism.

> "And the violation were well started when there was no explanation from the newspaper itself ...."

What do you mean? The drawings were published in a Danish newspaper with a long Danish article - and several Danish follow-up articles.

You can say it took some time for Jyllands-Posten to get an apology translated into Arabic, but it's not really Jyllands-Posten's fault that a bunch of dounle-tongued imams have spread the Danish drawings in the Middle East.

> "My point is that, unfortunately the whole story of violence were also justified by the lack of understanding shown from the Danish newspaper (where it didn't explain it's work immidiately) "

Again: these drawings were published in Denmark - and there were several accompanying articles - in Danish.

re: it is forbidden for a Muslim to attempt to draw life form (except plants, still life)e.g. human and animal portraits are forbidden. so if there are paintings of the prophet (pbuh) it would have been created by non muslims at the time.

If that is the case, then why is the Muslim world hipprocratical by then displaying painting of, let's say, Saddam? Ayatollah? And every other Wacked out Muslim vomit (leader) there is ?

ref:"Obviosly you people lack of respect of religion beliefs . and when it comes to mocking and disrespecting others religion ,thats where you go wrong , if people dont care about there beliefs , We Do (All Muslims) !we are very proud it.As well as we respect all other religions"

rep:I would like to know exactly how many religious persons were killed on 911? I am pretty sure those that perished that day were'nt all atheists. Respect for life AND religion is a better way to live. Cartoons are just that, a peice of paper. No one died looking at the paper. You hold an entire country responsiple for a cartoon... I do not hold an entire country responsiple for 911.You do however have very odd priorties in your life. I feel sorry for you and will pray (my) way for you and others that are so very angry over ink and wood pulp.

Some in this world are able to freely express their opinions with out fear of punishment in any form. That is called freedom. hum................new to you? Lets see..... look up the American Bill of Rights, read it... Amendment I (one)

Religion is in there too sweet heart and you might be surprised how it supports your views even as you condemn others. get off your pity potty and take care of your own and leave others to there own lives.. do words /(pictures)really hurt you? Then you must be very intolerable in your religion, and very very ignorant.

"Often, it is the case that anger is provoked by a deep rooted insecurity about one's faith so you will need to address this. Unfortunatly the very black and white idealogies followed by many muslims today is what dilutes the true message of Islam. Its okay to attend circle meetings where other religions are mocked though isnt it? You will always have non believers with their opinions, criticisms etc..it's the free will that Allah has bestowed upon us. If you truly believe your feathers may be slightly ruffled but these situations shouldnt provoke such anger. What is it that you feel threatned by? The portraits are for the artists to answer for and has no bearing on our prophet (pbuh) who resides in the heavens. Stop living by duniya values and reach a higher understanding. And that goes for all the critics of Islam as well. To earn respect you must deliver it."

Prophet Mohammed has no pictures drawen of him from the past nor the present, because the fact is allah does not allow such foolishness. Were are not allowed to imitate any source of picture and say it is the prophet, the question nowaday is why are other religions discriminating against islam by poting such disgusting pictures. Very wrong indeed and the only reason you do not see muslim's publishing such cartoona about other religions is because we respect every single relgion on this planet, so have respect for one another; after all we are all human beings.

I am a muslim, and I would like to see the issue from your prspective. I, as a muslim, would surely ask myself all the time how did the Prophet (peace upon him) look like, I just ask that question because this is my religion and I am a human being with natural curiosity. But what I would like to know is why are YOU curious of knowing what my prophet look like? I respect your beleifs and your point of view, but at the same time, I think that putting such drawing from a well-known newspaper have a much bigger point than just using the freedom given to journalists in any place. I dont know about your purpose, but the look you gave to the world about your goal was really bad, yous just proved that you disrespected other beleifs, and if there is any good purpose of publishing such thing, I think you should explain it to me so I can understand why are you arguing our anger. It's only a very simple question, Why do you support publishing pictures of the prophet and you are not even following his religion, you may not even like him??

Waw!!!It was really surprising to me reading all these comments!I've been a muslim for my whole life and this is the first time that I've been told that islam says "kill anyone!".. !I am really amazed from the prespective that you are taking the islam from. It's not like that.. I mean have you read enough about Islam to say everything that is said.. or have you people been curious to read the verses of the quran deeply and just understood what it really say?I dont think!.. I'm not talking just because I am a muslim, but I am talking because I've read about so many religions, I read about their beleifs, their traditions, and about their cultures. I never direspected them because I always look behind the reason of any statement said in their books. And that's what people who strongly reject islam, and consider it as "terrorism" did not do. Every person saw the Islam from a narrow minded while the islam is much more bigger to fit in such minds. You cant read the islam from a western point of view, because he surely will include his veiw of point in his writtings, Islam should be read and known from The quran mainly, and not just read the verses because the verses have a very deep meaning that not even muslims can find it from the first time. God revealed the Quran in this way to encourage us to think, to search, to find, to learn.. that is the whole message of the Islam.. Learn!.. and learn what is right not learning anything that anybody has told you. Find on your own dont just follow the opinion of a person that might be wrong, or might have lack of knowledge.I'm proudly a muslem, not because i was born a muslim.. but because I've read about my religion and cared enough to prove that it's a religion that will make me live happily.. Everybody needs to have a spirtual side... everybody needs someone to relay on.. we (muslims) have god.. That's all what is islam about.. you just have to have a close look and just read more about it.. dont just follow the media news and the public opinion.. !

It is not forbidden for a muslim to draw the portrait of Mohammad the prophet. It is kust forbidden for Sunni muslims. Guys you. have an intrinsic issue at the core of islam; muslims (shiaa) have no issue with drawing the portrait of the portrait, in fact iranian muslims have portraits of the prophets hanged in their homes like christans have it for jesus. Islam has an issue with itself.

After reading all these posts, I think that we have all forgotten what the cartoon is really saying. Bin Laden has created a view of Islam in the western world as a radical, and dangerous religion. And that is how the cartoon portrayed it. If you want to prove this wrong then by all means prove it. But by asking for the death of the cartoonist you only prove him right.

I have many friends who are muslim and a brother-in-law who is muslim. And they are very sad about the way the radicals have portrayed their beliefs. And it seems the majority of Muslims feel this way but the radicals have made them fear to speak up. The religion of Islam is at a turning point in it's history, and it can turn to become a very radical and dangerous religion. Or it can look back to it's origins and become once again a religion of knowledge and peaceful co-existence. Which can bring it to one of the greatest religions in history. It is up to the people of Islam to decide what path they wish to take. They can follow the words and true teachings, with study and knowledge at thier side. Or they can follow a dark path led by those like Bin Laden who only want glory and power for themselves and death and destruction to all others. I pray that those of true Islam begin to stand up and defend the truth of Islam before it is lost forever.

well all those who r talkin tht those cartoons shld not hav been drawn...why dont u kick ur minds n say the same to one of ur own painter-mr.m.f*hussain,the painter frm india...why does he hav to make vulgor paintings of hindu gods????does ur illiterate minds now understand wht it feels like????why dont u send a fatah for his death n kill him if ur a true so called muslim...